Thursday, August 19, 2010

The Grand Fetish - Rampant Consumerism

I have found a new blog, "Decline of the Empire" to add to the list, which I quite like because the author has a rapier wit, conflates the inanity of incessant growth with the imminent destruction of civilization as we know it, and doesn't mince words as can be seen from this representative passage on his post about ocean acidification:

"As long as we continue to burn fossil fuels, thus emitting excess CO2 into the atmosphere, the oceans will absorb about 30-35% of it. Science Daily sums up the NRC's conclusion that the ability of various marine organisms to acclimate or adapt to ocean acidification is unknown. If you've read a lot of these scientific reports by committee, as I have, you know that the word "unknown" is bureaucratic code standing for we're fucked, but the exact extent to which we're fucked is unknown."

And hey, he embedded this video, so yeah I like it:

1977. That is when we should have started conserving in earnest, and converting to clean energy. What ever happened? Oh, wait...mourning in America...